Round the mulberry tree…

Καὶ εἶπαν οἱ ἀπόστολοι τῷ κυρίῳ· Πρόσθες ἡμῖν πίστιν. εἶπεν δὲ ὁ κύριος· Εἰ ἔχετε πίστιν ὡς κόκκον σινάπεως, ἐλέγετε ἂν τῇ συκαμίνῳ ταύτῃ· Ἐκριζώθητι καὶ φυτεύθητι ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ· καὶ ὑπήκουσεν ἂν ὑμῖν.

Luke 17:5-6 SBL Greek Testament

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

Luke 17:5-6 NIV

In the English version above, this is a rather puzzling short passage. It holds echoes of other passages – the mustard seed, objects being picked up and sent elsewhere – but just read it again. Why would Jesus answer their request for increased faith with instructions on how to do extreme gardening? And mustard seeds we recognise, but why a mulberry tree?

We have two issues here: one the very inaccurate translation which, if we correct it, then allows us to address the second issue, namely the question of why a mulberry tree at all.

It is all about tenses and the modal particle, ἂν. Or at least that is the problem in verse 6. Verse 5 just needs a more accurate translation of Πρόσθες. Rather than go pedantically through word by word, let me summarise and then give my version:

The disciples ask the Lord to impute faith to them. And yes, there isn’t a neat English equivalent. It is something like “flip the faith switch for us, Lord”; in other words the disciples are the passive party in this transaction, Jesus will switch them on. Good luck with that, boys.

When we get to verse 6 it is the verb tenses that are all wrong. It is almost as if the translators get to ἔχετε, decide that must be present indicative and therefore ignore the tenses in the rest of the verse. In truth, ἔχετε can be 2nd person plural present indicative active OR 2nd person plural imperfect indicative active; but ἐλέγετε ἂν can only be 2nd person plural imperfect indicative active, and ὑπήκουσεν ἂν can only be 3rd singular aorist indicative active – both of them made into statements of past potentiality by our little modal particle, ἂν. Once we have seen this then we quickly realise ἔχετε must have been imperfect as well.

So here is my version:

The apostles said to the Lord, “make us faith-people!” (or whatever expression you prefer)

But the Lord replied, “if you (plural) were having faith as big as a seed of mustard, you would have been saying to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and be (trans)planted in the sea; and it would have hearkened to you.”

The key learning point Jesus was making is that if you have any faith, you have faith; and on the basis of that you would also know you should be telling things to get in place, consistently for as long as it takes; and that at a certain point they would have done so. That isn’t a suggestion that faith takes forever to operate, any more than I would suggest that the first six days of walking around Jericho were failures. It is more about you getting to the place where you “know that you know that you know” that you have the thing you are speaking out – at which point you do.

To repeat – if you were having (past continuous) faith then you would have been speaking (past continuous) and the mulberry tree would have obeyed you (at a point in time, which is the import of the aorist).

So why a mulberry tree? Firstly, it absolutely was a mulberry tree – I read someone today, who was trying to blame Luther for getting this wrong and that it was actually a sycamore-fig; but Luther had it right. The black (or red) mulberry, originally from Persia was well established around the Middle East by biblical times and is the συκάμινος in Greek. The Egyptian sycamore-fig is an unrelated plant, in Greek the συκόμορος. And the συκάμινος has one very important property which we will come to in a moment. But why this rather bulky 30-75ft tree?

We know from several chapters earlier that Jesus was making His way to Jerusalem, so all of this takes place in the Judean hill-country. And when you read carefully, it is clear that the disciples have been having a conversation about the specific mulberry tree to which Jesus refers. Why would any of them have done that? Well it would have been of interest to at least those of them that were fishermen – the four most senior of the apostles, Peter and Andrew, James and John. The reason?

The mulberry is rare amongst hardwoods in having “good weathering characteristics. Hence, you can safely use mulberry timber in making outdoor furniture. The wood is also often used in fence posts and shipbuilding since it is resistant to decay and insects…. Common Uses: furniture, turned objects, fence posts, veneer, boat building, carving, and tight cooperage…” (https://alderferlumber.com/collections/live-edge-mulberry-wood-slabs)

Also search “mulberry timber boatbuilding” for a doctoral dissertation including the use of συκάμινος in Red Sea boatbuilding in ancient history.

So we can posit that some of the disciples have just admired a splendid mulberry, thinking just how it could be turned into a really nice boat, or perhaps hull repairs, and maybe commented either to the effect “shame it is so far from the water” or “hey Peter! Reckon you can carry this back to the Sea (of Galilee)?”

So when they come out with their “we really still don’t get this faith thing, Lord, could you fix it please?” comment, Jesus tells them, “guys, if you had an iota of faith you would have been telling this Mulberry tree to get down to the Sea where it is needed – and it would have done so!”